“Someone should warn Selene about you before it’s too late.”
Augustus flinched. “Lili?—”
“We’re in this situation because of you! My dad?—”
Cold realization sank into his gut like rotten meat. She blamed him for Loto’s death. Honestly, she wasn’t wrong. It’d been his contract he failed to fill, and now Taran Phya was putting all his weight and coin behind the man who murdered the entire crew of theAkias.
Roslyn crossed the deck to Lili and put an arm around her, whispering in her ear. Lili leaned into the much smaller woman and closed her eyes.
The women strode away, arm-in-arm, and Augustus let them go. As much as he wanted to beg for Lili’s forgiveness, she wouldn’t hear him. He knew her well enough to knowthat much.
Blaze started for him, but Augustus held up a hand. He was the last person Augustus should be talking to right now.
“Captain Triarius,” the ship’s captain said, climbing the forecastle stairs. “We have to drop anchor here. You and your people will have to row the rest of the way.”
The boulders in the shallows. Right. “Thank you.”
The island was still a couple of miles out. Not a terrible distance, but his nerves wished it were less. He needed to see Selene. Needed to see with his own eyes that she was safe and unharmed. Everything that came after, he would deal with as it came. He deserved whatever was in store.
They took two rowboats. Lili went with the Rangers and a handful of the Blades. Augustus sailed with the rest. Every now and then, Oskar watched him in that quiet, thoughtful way.
Finally, the old man said, “She’ll be all right.”
“Who?”
“Lili. She’s hurting. We’ve all been there. It’s hard to make sense of things in the aftermath of a loss like that.” His chin lowered, and he fingered the ring chained around his neck. “You know that better than anyone, I’m sure.”
Augustus’s experience was slightly different—he’d been locked in a cage after his mother died. He’d been useless for a couple of days but was shaken out of it quickly. He’d had no choice but to go forward so they could escape. So they couldlive.
Right now, no one’s life was in danger, and Lili had all the time in the world to spin out.
“She’ll find a reason to push on,” Oskar said. “Her mind will clear, and she will see this isn’t your fault.”
“The problem is, she’s not totally wrong.”
Oskar nodded, then sent his gaze through the parting tendrils of fog. “Lessons are always learned the hard way.”
The silence that followed sank like a weight on his chest, and Augustus gave over to it. The lap of water became a soothing melody. The cry of birds, a chorus.
“Augustus.”
The whisper surrounded him like one of those tendrils of cloud, except this had substance. He turned his entire body toward the sound—toward the shore and the forestbeyond.
“Augustus. I need you.”
Augustus straightened. He knew that voice. “Selene.”
The men aboard the skiff stared toward the island, rowing paused.
“Augustus. Come find me.”
Her voice should have filled him with hope.
Instead, it hollowed him out.
Something was wrong.
Selene walked ahead of Petrina through the market. She met the villagers’ curious gazes, fighting her body’s urge to bolt. Instead, she smiled at the Drynopian people.
